Mini Ninjas: Hero Amongst Heroes
by yingyangmaster
Summary: Being a new addition to the Mini Ninjas, 14-year-old Kiyoshi initially found himself to be shunned by the other children who were all skeptical of him since the day he arrived. However, they would soon realize that he is the key to defeating a new form of evil that threatens their livelihoods and everyone else on the Island. Based on the Mini Ninjas TV series on Disney.
1. Introduction

**A/n: Back in 2009 and exactly 10 years ago, I played the Mini Ninjas game on Xbox 360 when it first came out. Although I haven't played the game since 2011, it was definitely one of the best third-person ninja game I've played. About a few weeks ago (Jan 2019), I accidentally came across Disney Channel XD and got to find out that the Mini Ninjas have become an animated tv series, and in the name of reminiscing my childhood, I proceeded to watch the episode and later on, went on Amazon to purchase the entire season 1. It was just that good!**

 **Of course, the premise of the animated series seems to differ quite a lot from the Xbox game, but nonetheless, the episodes were just as entertaining and funny too! Looking around FF and seeing not many Mini Ninjas fanfiction (only 2 in fact), I've decided to add on this multi-chapter story to contribute to the fandom. This story will be based on the animated series rather than the game itself, however.**

 **I've decided that before I start off with the story, I might as well give a brief introduction of the characters in case any of my followers, who chanced upon this story through email notification, are not familiar with the series. Enjoy!**

 **Protagonists :**

 **The Mini Ninjas:** A group of young orphans of different ages whom the Ninja Master found when they were infants (at different points of time). He raised them on his own and taught every one of them the art ninjutsu, three of whom have completely mastered the Art and were qualified to be called ninjas. The other children are regularly seen to be training with the Ninja Master to achieve the same title as their comrades. The entire Mini Ninjas consist of:

 **Kiyoshi** : An OC of mine. A 14-year-old boy who is a recent, new addition to the Mini Ninjas and undergoing extensive training with the Ninja Master. Basic appearance information; he has spiky black hair with a slender but robust built. He wears a fitting black kimono with long sleeves and black hakama pants (both similar to Hiro's) that outlines his arm and leg muscles. More description of him will be revealed throughout the story.

 **Hiro** : A 10-year-old boy and ninja who has been a long-time student of the Ninja Master. He's the main protagonist in both the game and tv series. Like Kiyoshi, he dons a black, long-sleeve kimono, black hakama pants and wears wooden Japanese slippers like the other ninjas. His hair is flat but tied in a Japanese fashion at the centre of his head. His weapon of choice is a ninjato (a type of sword). His ninjato is made of metal in the game, but appears to be made of bamboo in the series. The bamboo ninjato, however, appears to be just as effective as a metal one. A small boy with a big heart, but unfortunately with an even bigger ego that has frequently gotten him into unnecessary trouble throughout the series. He's the only ninja besides the Ninja Master who possesses knowledge on Kuji Magic.

 **Suzume** : A 10-year-old ninja and one of two females of the group. Her long hair is tied in a ponytail with two strands of hair hanging at either side of her face. She wears a sleeveless black kimono and sports a red headband with a Kanji character on it. She also wears a thin necklace around her neck. Her special weapon is a wooden flute which she uses to play tunes that have the ability to enchant enemies and also summon the help of nature, ie. playing certain tunes will cause nearby branches and vines to mysteriously lengthen in size and help hinder or trap pursuing enemies. The most matured of the group, she often comes out with brilliant solutions during hostile situations and often makes snarky and witty remarks whenever Hiro screws up. She appears to have somewhat of a brother-sister relationship with Hiro in which she acts as the older sister despite them being about the same age.

 **Futo** : A bulky 11-year-old ninja who's easily the biggest and strongest of the group. His robust built and big arms allow him to wield his favorite weapon of choice; an oversized wooden mallet/hammer, easily without much effort. His head is shaved bald and he wears a grey legged kimono with the sleeves torn off and mesh cuffs around his wrists. He is best friends with both Hiro and Suzume, and the trio are often the centred characters in episodes throughout the tv series. Despite his massive size and appearance, he portrays the typical 'gentle giant' character with his soft-spoken manner of talking and only displays violence when he is either angered (which is rare) or when faced off with enemies. With great size comes greater appetite, and he's shown to have the biggest portion of rice during mealtimes and munches on apples at the most random of times. Always lugging his hammer wherever he goes, he usually has no problems fighting off enemies that dare to engage him in combat. However, there were times where he had been heavily outnumbered that resulted in him being captured by enemies, although he would always somehow find a way to escape captivity using cunningness that he had learned from Suzume.

 **Shun** : A 9-year-old boy who has a niche of being an expert archer of the group. What he lacks in mastering ninjutsu, he makes it up by being an expert marksman with his bow and arrows. He's also portrayed to be an inventor, having a laboratory of his own where he builds various equipment, such as smoke bombs and an improvised bow and arrow that increases his accuracy. He wears a long-sleeved kimono but with green camouflage instead of it being black like the others. He has spiky hair like Kiyoshi and brown eyes. Also, he speaks in a noticeably posh accent, possibly indicating that he sees himself as a genius, although his mannerisms throughout the series suggest that he is quite humble and doesn't show pride in his engineering talents.

 **Tora** : A 10-year-old boy who, since infancy, has always thought himself to be literally a tiger instead of a boy. He would always scamper about on all fours like a tiger would, and he communicates by growling or sometimes by pointing his finger. Hiro could apparently understand his growls and would sometimes translate to the others what Tora was trying to say. Appearance-wise, he has jet black hair pulled into a tight, upward bun and wears the black standard ninja outfit with mesh sleeves underneath an orange tiger-patterned vest. He also wears his tiger claws which he created himself, complete with a tiger-patterned covering to show his affinity for the tiger.

 **Kunoichi** : The second female of the group. In the game, she appears to be about 11 or 12 years old, but in the tv series, she appears to be at least 7 years old, making her the youngest child in this particular story. Being only 7, she is deemed to be too young to wield her own weapon and still has a long way to go in mastering the art of Ninjutsu compared to the other ninjas. However, unlike most 7-year-olds, she has displayed unique acrobatic abilities throughout the series, such as being able to run vertically upwards against gravity to reach the very top of their house*. She is shown to look up to all her seniors regardless (including Tora), and they all treat her affectionately like their own baby sister. Instead of donning a kimono like the other ninjas, she wears a red dress that ends just above her knees along with a bright red headband on her head.

 **The Ninja Master** : He is the wise elderly ninja who found and raised the Mini Ninjas at his camp. He is portrayed to be a very wise teacher who trained the children in the Art of Ninjutsu, of which three of his students have mastered the necessary skills to be qualified ninjas. Despite the lack of blood ties to the group, the Ninja Master sees all of them as his children and accepts them no matter what their background is. Although his age is not revealed in the tv series, for purposes of this story's plot, his age is presumed to be close to 105 years old. He sports a typical "shifu"-style white mustache that droops down past his chin and his head is bald in the centre. He dons a black robe with a cape around his shoulders to keep himself warm and he sometimes wear a Japanese straw hat when having to travel outside the camp. Despite being their master, he sometimes initiate with the children to participate in games such as hide and seek, which he would justify by saying it was all part of their training, possibly indicating that he is either still young at heart, or he just acknowledges the fact that his students are still children and wants to give them the opportunity to enjoy their childhoods. The children, in turn, adores him and tend to listen to his orders and advice, though Hiro would sometimes go against his instructions and often times would land into trouble as a result. Despite being old, he is much shorter than most of his students, his height being on par with 7-year-old Kunoichi.

 **Antagonists** :

 **Ashida** : An evil warlord who appeared both in the Xbox game and tv series as the primary antagonist. He has a few fortresses that he erected illegally across the Island and his sole intention was to take full control of the Island and its habitants by way of expanding his Samurai army, although his plans for expansion had always been thwarted by the Mini Ninjas. He is one of three people on the Island to possess knowledge on Kuji Magic besides Hiro and The Ninja Master. However, unlike the other two, Ashida uses this powerful Magic to 'enchant' and turn ordinary forest animals into his Samurai soldiers and guards as part of his expansion plan. He is bald at the top of his head, with white spiky hair sticking out horizontally, as well as bushy white eyebrows and a goatee. He wears a dark blue kimono under a white vest with brown colored beads around his neck. Interestingly, he is about the same height as the Ninja Master and is presumed to be almost the same age as him.

 **Shoko** : Ashida's granddaughter. At least to be 11-years-old and fits the description of a spoilt child. Ashida has given her control of the Samurai soldiers, whom she mostly treats as her own minions. Appears in almost every episode as the main enemy of the episodes' plot as she carries out her grandfather's orders to cause some form of destruction around the Island as part of his empire-building plan. However, as stated before, these plans are often thwarted by the Mini Ninjas who would always engage with her and her Samurai minions in combat whenever they got to find out what she was up to. It is this reason that she has a very strong resentment against them and is always striving to improve her fighting skills with hopes of defeating them some day. She wears a bright red tunic that covers a black, long sleeve kimono underneath and red hakama pants. Her hair is tied in two buns at the back and she has much paler skin than the other characters. Will always angrily demand for a box of ginseng cookies from her Samurai minions (if there are any left) after every time she is defeated by the Mini Ninjas.

 **Kitsune** : Ashida's clumsy and very timid servant. He is a thin, middle-aged man who is mostly seen doing chores around Ashida's fortress such as sweeping the floor, serving tea and getting whatever items requested by his master. He also follows whatever Shoko orders him to. Despite working for the 'evil side', he has, on occasions, shown mild objection whenever he overhears Ashida explaining his heinous plans to Shoko, although he never dares to express it out of fear of his master. He is often a source of comic relief throughout the plots of the episodes.

 **The Samurai Soldiers** : These are the forest animals that Ashida captured and enchanted using Kuji magic to be his soldiers. The majority of the soldiers were initially rabbits, a common forest animal found across the Island. Once enchanted, the animals' forms would transform into armour-wearing beings who dons oversized helmets similar to real Samurais, and they all have glowing yellow eyes in place of actual faces. Their size differs from what animal they were enchanted from. Given that most of them were initially rabbits, most of these Samurai soldiers are about the same size as the children in the series, while the rare bigger ones were enchanted from bigger animals like raccoons. These soldiers do have several things in common, however, such as the fact that they all communicate by making loud and screeching incoherent noises while the bigger ones speak in deep bursts of Japanese. It is also important to note that all these Samurai have "Kuji Spots" on their helmets that, once tapped, will revert the Kuji Magic and turn these beings back to their original animal forms. This is usually how the Mini Ninjas would defeat them and ultimately foil Shoko's and Ashida's plans. Although the Samurai do possess basic fighting skills, they tend to act clumsily during combat, making them rather easy enemies to defeat. The only few times where a Mini Ninja is defeated in the hands of the Samurai is when he or she is heavily outnumbered.

 **Places of Interest:**

 **The Island:** The setting where the entire series takes place. It is a small Island that's several miles off from mainland Japan with not many inhabitants. Its inhabitants would include the Mini Ninjas and their Master; Ashida, Shoko and the Samurai Army; along with some villagers who live in a village located near the centre of the Island.

 **The Ninja Camp and The Ninja-Craft:** A secret hideout where the Mini Ninjas make camp. The camp is a clearing located in the middle of a bamboo forest and right next to a small waterfall. The entrance to the clearing is obscured by two cliffs that acts as barriers from possible intrusion. The camp is where the Mini Ninjas train with their Master and its very location remained a secret even with the Island's villagers, whom the Mini Ninjas had assisted several times against the Samurai. One of the main objectives of Ashida and Shoko's plans was to find the location of the Ninja camp in order to destroy the Mini Ninjas who are hindering their efforts in taking control of the Island, although to date, their attempts of finding the camp were always in vain. The Ninja-Craft is a ball-like structure that floats on the stream next to the small waterfall. It is the place where the Ninjas and their Master live and sleep in. It is usually anchored to the bottom of the stream, although, in one episode, it was shown to have the ability to conveniently sink to the bottom of the stream in order to stay away from view when a flying Samurai (enchanted from a bird) came too close to their camp while it was looking for bamboo. This was done by first fastening all windows and any openings of the craft shut and then letting in some water into a ballast stored at the bottom that causes the craft to sink, a mechanism similar to a real-life submarine.


	2. Building Trust

**Chapter 1: Building Trust**

Dusk vanished slowly with a note of chary sunset. Beautiful colours flooded the Island as the Sun pulled itself down and sunk from beneath the jagged mountain ranges and the horizon. It was a sight to behold, marking the end of another peaceful day on the Island. While the inhabitants of the Island's sole village took their time to bask in the sunset and prepare for the night ahead, things were not as calm and serene on the other side of the Island. Somewhere on the outskirts of a bamboo forest right next to a steady-flowing stream, loud grunts, shouts and growls echoed amongst the cliffs that towered over the bamboo forest.

The old Ninja Master sat patiently on the same patch of grass that he'd been sitting on since dawn, quietly observing his newest student; 14-year-old Kiyoshi, rigorously perform Hane Gari kicks in the air just several feet in front of him. "You are doing the same mistake that you've been repeating for the last half an hour Kiyoshi," the elderly Ninja finally commented, causing the teen to pause and look towards the Master with surprise.

"Young Kiyoshi, all I'm seeing is you kicking about in the air for absolutely no reason, when I've specifically told you to picture an enemy in front of you and make sure that your kicks land in the right places."

Kiyoshi let out a grunt, annoyed that his Master hadn't pointed out his mistake much earlier. Still, he gave a respectful bow and then posed himself to perform the Hane Gari, the correct way this time; by making sure his kicks landed approximately at his "enemy's" solar plexus. The Master nodded in approval and continued supervising his student.

Meanwhile, observing the two in the distant were the other Mini Ninjas, who were gathered right next to the stream with bored expressions plastered on their faces. "Man... I can't believe the Master has completely forgotten about us for the past three days!" Lamented 10-year-old Hiro. "And all because of that Kiyoshi who suddenly popped out of nowhere!"

Three days ago, the children woke up early in the morning to find the Ninja Master standing at their door with the teenager standing beside him. "Children, I want you to meet your new brother... Kiyoshi. He and I will be training on the forest's outskirts for the next few days, so feel free to occupy yourselves with your own activities until Kiyoshi has completed his training." The Master had briefed them, which was greeted by stares of bewilderment from his other students. But before the children could even open their mouths to ask any further questions, the teenager gave them a solemn bow before heading out with the Master to the spot where they will engage in his training for the upcoming days.

"I've always wanted some time off from being a ninja and just laze away without having to do anything," admitted Futo. "But after doing absolutely nothing for three days in a row, I think I have to start being careful with what I wish for now..."

"I have a feeling that Kiyoshi is purposely avoiding us," Shun commented, rubbing his chin as he observed the teen in the distant. "He's never talked to us nor has he even tried to make eye contact with any of us since he arrived. He's even got his own sleeping area downstairs of the Ninja-craft... I'd say he's the type who likes being alone."

"Or maybe... he's the type who only speaks to you if you speak to him first," Suzume suggested, who was getting quite annoyed with all the negative comments and portrayals of the newcomer. "And anyways, why are you boys gossiping so much about him? We girls don't even gossip as much as you do..."

"Hey, we're not gossiping, okay?" Hiro quickly rebutted. "We're just... curious why he doesn't even make eye contact with any of us, or... why he suddenly showed up at our ninja camp in the first place! For all we might know, he might even be working for that evil Ashida and our Master has somehow fallen for his trick!"

The others looked at him with shock, as that particular possibility didn't even cross their minds. However, they instantly rubbished his accusation as they know their Master would instantly recognize anyone who would be working with evil warlord Ashida.

"Come on, Hiro. We all know the Master isn't as gullible as you to simply trust anyone," Suzume teased him with a smirk. "I think you're seriously underestimating the Master's wisdom here..."

"W-what?! No, I didn't mean that!" Hiro stuttered in defense. "I'm just saying Hiroshi looks the type of person we shouldn't trust..."

"Well I certainly trust him!" young Kunoichi eventually chimed in. "He may not speak to us much, but I think deep down, he's actually a nice person."

"How do you know that?" Shun asked.

"Oh... well, err... something inside just tells me he's a nice guy," the 7-year-old shyly replied, to which her seniors smiled at her innocent demenour. Except for Hiro, though. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I think we're wasting time talking about Kiyoshi," he grunted, turning around and walking upstream. "We might as well do our own training and prepare ourselves in case Ashida or Shoko decides to cause trouble."

"But we haven't heard anything related to those two since the last two weeks," Futo commented. "And we haven't received even a single complaint from the villagers too."

"Good. Then that gives us more time for us to practice our moves," Hiro briskly replied, as he walked further away from them. "Feel free to join me if you want to."

The other boys exchanged looks at each other before deciding to go with him. "Hey, Hiro wait up!"

As the boys left and leaving only the two girls behind, Kunoichi turned and continued observing Kiyoshi and their Master. "Suzume. Do you trust Kiyoshi being around here?" she suddenly asked after a while.

Suzume raised a brow at her before turning her gaze to the newcomer's direction. "Well... it's a bit hard to tell when he's never spoken to us before," she vaguely replied. "But if the Master trusts him enough to train him as a student, then I guess we should trust him too... I think."

Young Kunoichi was still not convinced with her answer. "Well... does he look trustworthy, then?"

Suzume let out a small laugh, wondering why the younger ninja was so interested in the newcomer, but decided to try and answer her anyways. "Hmmm... I guess... he might look trustworthy," she replied, narrowing her gaze at the teen. "But you can't really tell if someone's trustworthy just by looking at their faces. You have to really get to know them better to decide whether they're really trustworthy or not."

Kunoichi nodded in agreement, but then a small, sly grin suddenly curved on her lips as she got an idea of a rather thorny question that she'd like to see how her senior would respond to. "Suzume... do you think Kiyoshi looks... good?"

Suzume immediately turned and looked at her, eyes widened with confusion, "W-what? What do you mean by that?"

"You know, I mean... do you think Kiyoshi is... good-looking?" Kunoichi repeated, slightly rephrasing her question, though she could already guess the answer just by picking up the slight stutter that Suzume let out.

Suzume furrowed her brows and then trained her gaze at Kiyoshi. She observed how seamlessly he could perform the Hane Gari; taking a few strides back, then using the balls of his feet to launch himself into the air and striking his left leg at where an enemy's solar plexus would be before landing both legs on the ground again. He had been doing that particular move (correctly this time) for the last few minutes, and each time he got better and better.

Suzume's eyes then began to focus on his physical appearance instead. Being only ten and surrounded either by her fellow ninjas who were children around her age, or aging adults who were five to ten times older than her, Kiyoshi was admittedly the first teenager she had ever laid eyes on, and innocent curiosity instantly made her scrutinize the fourteen-year-old's physical stature.

She quietly admired how his tight-fitting hakama pants emphasized his long muscular legs, and how his strained, black kimono showed off the outline of his bulky chest and arm muscles. His spiky hair seemed to glisten in the last few rays of the evening sunlight, his stern-looking face radiated with deadly confidence and fearlessness, while his eyes-

Suzume suddenly snapped from her train of thoughts when she realized she had been staring at him for too long, and she could feel a warm sensation slowly forming on her cheeks that was coupled with intense breathing. Apparently, staring at Kiyoshi's physiques seemed to have a trance-like effect on her and she almost forgot where she was. She then heard a soft giggle beside her and instantly remembered that Kunoichi had been standing with her the whole time, and, judging by the way she was snickering, probably saw how her gaze was so fixated on Kiyoshi the entire time she was observing him.

"I take it that you find him more than just good-looking?" the seven-year-old grinned at her.

Suzume wondered how little Kunoichi could suddenly develop a cheeky and mischievous side when she had always been the good and obedient seven-year-old all this while. Still, she wasn't too worried about anyone finding out her thoughts of Kiyoshi. She knew Kunoichi long enough to be assured that whatever happened just now would remain between them. "Yeah... I guess he is kind of cute," Suzume admitted with a shy smile on her lips. "But I think it's better the others don't find out about this."

Kunoichi nodded with a giggle, understanding what she meant. Knowing how the other boys could be immature at times, Suzume was sure that they would tease her to no end if they ever find out that she finds Kiyoshi appealing. And that itself was still a mystery to her; she wondered why she never felt attracted to any of the boys of her clan despite being so close and having spent most of her life with them, but found herself suddenly being enticed by the mere sight of Kiyoshi practicing his Hane Gari... why was she feeling so different about it?

"I guess we should join the others with our own training, huh?" Kunoichi eventually suggested, looking at Suzume and awaiting her response. Suzume agreed, deciding she should do something to get the newcomer off her mind. She reminded herself that she wasn't the type to fall head over heels for a boy.

The last couple of hours of dusk went by peacefully as usual, and before long, night had arrived. Everyone had gone back to the Ninja-Craft and as per their routine, the Ninja Master cooked their usual dinner of plain 'rice with rice'. While the children and the Master sat down and ate at the common area, Kiyoshi went straight to his own personal space downstairs without joining the others for dinner, which he had done so since he arrived. Apparently, he preferred to survive only on a bowl of rice a day, which he cooked and ate early in the morning before anyone else was awake. The Master found out about this and left him a small sack of rice in his room so he could cook on his own without disturbing the children while they were still asleep.

Usually, there would be quite a bit of chatter during dinner time with the Master engaging in light-hearted conversations with his students, but for the past three days, he never spoke a word, and he kept a solemn expression throughout their meal. The children didn't try to start a conversation out of respect, but they all guessed that his sudden change in behaviour was more than likely connected with Kiyoshi's arrival. There were so many questions they wanted to ask him regarding the newcomer, but him keeping mum about it told them that he wasn't about to answer any questions any time soon. Hiro, in particular, was very impatient to know what was the reason the Master brought Kiyoshi to their secret camp and why he refused to provide a single explanation to them on the teen's unannounced arrival.

After dinner was over, the girls and Futo proceeded to clear up the common area while the three other boys (Hiro, Tora and Shun) went out to practice their stealth skills in the bamboo forests. Everyone had their own activities until it was eventually time to go to sleep. The Master had been in his chamber since after dinner, and he trusted his students to be disciplined enough to know when to hit the hay without being told. The children slept in the common area on the floor, with individual tatami mats as their 'beds' and a single white sheet as blankets and no pillows. It may look uncomfortable to some, but the children were perfectly accustomed to sleeping that way.

Two hours had passed after midnight, and everyone was still fast asleep. Then, out of the blue, there was movement. Suzume, who was a very light sleeper, instantly flicked open her eyes the moment she heard the soft creaking of wood. She forced herself to remain completely still as the movement on floorboards got louder. She didn't have to look to deduce that it was the sound of someone walking up the stairs from the lower floor of the Craft. She held her breath and closed her eyes as that 'someone' had reached the top of the stairs and began walking along the edge of the common area, avoiding the middle where she and the other Mini Ninjas were sleeping.

Suzume braved herself to open an eyelid, and, much to her disbelief, instantly recognized the silhouette who was creeping around in the shadows of the dark. It was Kiyoshi. There was no mistake about it, the silhouette belonged to someone who was very tall, and there was no one else in the Ninja-Craft who was that tall other than Kiyoshi. By now, all sorts of questions began churning in Suzume's mind, and seeing how Kiyoshi was quietly moving about reminded her of what Hiro had said about the teenager earlier today; "For all we might know, he might even be working for that evil Ashida and our Master has somehow fallen for his trick!"

So was Hiro right then? Was Kiyoshi really sent by Ashida to spy on them and the Master had the wrong sense of judgment for once? The young ten-year-old ninja was ready to believe so, but decided to wait and see what Kiyoshi was up to. The sound of his tiptoeing feet told her that he was that he had made his way across the common area. She then heard him slowly opening the door (opposite where she and the others were sleeping) that lead to the small balcony outside. The room was immediately flooded with the yellow glow of the full moon the moment Kiyoshi opened the door, giving a perfect outline of his shadow against the rice-paper door and walls.

Suzume quietly sat up on her tatami mat and watched the movement of his shadow, now even more curious as to what he was up to. She saw his silhouette moving a little to the left from the door before turning around and facing forwards, where he remained still after that. Suzume furrowed her brows with suspicion as she finally concluded that Kiyoshi was now standing outside and facing the balcony. What was he doing? Was he waiting for someone to bring them inside the Ninja Craft? Was he waiting to lead enemies into their home and have her friends and the Ninja Master ambushed while they were all asleep?!

By now, Suzume was convinced that Kiyoshi was up to no good and decided that she should have sound the alarm a long time ago, yet the burning curiosity inside her held her from doing that, and instead, she ended up braving herself to take a peek and spy on Kiyoshi to see if he really was waiting for someone outside. She quietly got up and carefully tiptoed her way to the door, making sure her feet didn't shift the floorboards too much for it to creak as she crept. Once reaching the door, she leaned slightly to the right and peeked outside. She saw Kiyoshi now leaning forwards and resting his arms on the wooden rail of the small balcony, as if he was casually gazing into the distance.

A small gust of wind blew past his hair and the sound of chirping night-time insects together with the soft gurgling of the river indeed painted a relaxed environment, which Suzume herself hadn't experienced before, making her wonder if Kiyoshi was actually just enjoying the serenity of the night instead of the heinous intentions that she thought he was up to. But then, much to Suzume's horror, she suddenly heard his deep, husky voice say, "You know, I can hear your breathing from here, young Suzume..."

The young ninja's heart began thumping heavily against her chest as the target she was spying on was now gazing straight into her eyes. Suzume mentally cursed herself for making the fundamental mistake of not controlling her breathing while using stealth to spy on Kiyoshi. But that didn't matter now, she was caught red-handed and she didn't know whether to stand firm and confront Kiyoshi in defense, or... remain at the door like a timid mouse and pray that he didn't have any kind of evil intentions.

Kiyoshi had an unamused look on his face as he gazed at her, but yet, he didn't appear intimidating at the same time. "Why are you awake? Aren't you supposed to be in bed right now?" He asked with a raised brow.

Suzume took in a deep breath and decided to brave herself and face the teenager as she walked from the door and opposite of him. "Well... I was just about to ask you the same thing," she replied cautiously. "Why were you creeping about in the common area where we were sleeping?"

Kiyoshi's unamused look was instantly replaced with admiration, as he was impressed with Suzume's attitude of not backing down even when she was caught. "I wasn't really 'creeping around the common area' like you said, Suzume," he calmly replied before shifting his gaze to the view of the river downstream. "I was just trying to get to the balcony here without disturbing you and your friends. I was feeling a little homesick, so, I came to enjoy the breeze so I don't miss my home too much."

Suzume was quite surprised at how honest he was in admitting that he was homesick. She didn't think a guy who was tough-looking and older than her would calmly admit that he was feeling homesick. Maybe she did misjudge his true character after all, then?

"Would you like to join me?" he unexpectedly asked, persuading her with a soft, beckoning smile as he looked back at her once again.

Suzume wasn't prepared at all by this. Yet, she couldn't help but feel that Kiyoshi was just being friendly and sincere, making it difficult for her to say no. "Um.. sure," She replied, flashing him a meek smile before walking towards him and taking her place standing beside him.

Kiyoshi once again reverted his focus towards the scenery ahead, closing his eyes as another breeze blew by. With the sight of the full moon in view, the soft gurgling of the river was heard and the intermittent whisper of the night-breeze did indeed bring a sense of calm and serenity as she stood next to him. Her breathing had returned to normal and she was feeling very much relaxed, even comfortable, in fact.

"I sense that you and the others have quite a fair bit of questions you'd like to ask me..." Kiyoshi finally spoke after a couple of minutes had passed. "Am I right?"

 _A fair bit is certainly an understatement_ , Suzume thought. "Yes, that's right. But right now, I'm only interested in one question; you said you were homesick and the breeze helps remind you of your home. Where is actually your home? Are you even from around here?"

That question had certainly left Kiyoshi even more impressed with Suzume. He never thought that a ten-year-old could pick up the little details in his words and deduce the true fact that he really wasn't a local there. "No, not really," he answered, confirming her suspicions. "I'm not from this Island, I'm actually from the Mainland. My home is in a village at the base of Mount Fuji, so where I lived, it was always cold and windy." He paused to give a praising smirk at her. "I have to admit, I'm very impressed with how you guessed that I'm not from around here. Great detective work."

Suzume couldn't refrain herself from beaming at his compliment, but flattery wasn't enough to stop her from asking the more pertinent questions. "Okay, so... you're from the Mainland and you were happily living in your old village there. Why did the Master bring you here, then? And then again... how is it that the Master knows you? He's never left the Island before since he was born here!"

Kiyoshi chuckled at the barrage of questions she threw at him. "Are you sure those are the only questions you have for me?" He asked rhetorically with a grin. Before Suzume could respond, he continued, "As much as I'd love to answer those questions, Suzume, I'm afraid the only thing I can reveal to you is that I was summoned to the Island at the request of the Master. The other details... well, the Master insisted that he will explain everything to you all when the time is right."

"And that will be...?"

"In five days' time when I finish mastering all the moves in Ninjutsu and the day I become a Ninja."

This came to a surprise to Suzume, and she initially thought that his last sentence was something that was impossible to achieve, as it had taken herself, Hiro and Futo about two whole years to master all those moves and techniques for them to be qualified Ninjas, so it did appear to be an impossibility for Kiyoshi to master all of them in just five days. But then again, she and the others had seen how he could easily master ten Ninjutsu moves on the first day of his arrival when it had taken them an entire month to master those same moves. There were a total of about 80 moves and techniques in the art of Ninjutsu, so, if Kiyoshi was a really fast learner, it would seem plausible for him to actually master them and become a Ninja in five days' time.

Suzume still had her doubts on Kiyoshi's abilities, but decided not to mention about it. "I just don't understand it. The Master has always been open and he never kept secrets from us. Why is he suddenly being so secretive about everything related to you?" Suzume lamented, looking at him with a dissatisfied look.

Kiyoshi sincerely understood her frustration, but chose not to divulge any information. "I'm sorry, Suzume. I wish I could answer that as well, but... I already made a promise to the Master that I won't reveal anything to you and your friends. He's actually the reason why I've been avoiding you all."

Suzume had also guessed that already, but she was still not satisfied by the fact that none of her questions were answered. "I see..." she replied half-heartedly, turning her gaze away from him.

Kiyoshi was just as frustrated by the fact that he couldn't be more open about himself; he didn't like being cast in a bad light by the Mini Ninjas simply because he was told not to interact with them. Perhaps, he could just give a brief information about himself? After all, he already went against the Ninja Master's order just by talking to Suzume...

"Alright, look..." he began, instantly regaining Suzume's attention as she looked back at him. "I can't tell you much about myself, but I will tell you this. The reason why I was brought to the Island... has got something to do with why it had been so peaceful here for the last two weeks. I think its a well-known fact that you don't usually get even a few days of peace without a certain 'someone' causing trouble on the Island."

This revelation caused Suzume's eyes to widen with shock as she immediately realized who that 'someone' was, "Wait... Are you saying-"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying," He cut her off. Seeing how perturbed Suzume suddenly got made him regret letting out that information. "Look, I'm not supposed to tell you anything, so... can you PLEASE promise me you'll act as if I never told you anything?"

Suzume gazed into his pleading eyes and felt sorry for him. She decided she was more or less obligated to make that promise. "Yeah... I will." She nodded, giving him a reassuring smile.

Kiyoshi immediately eased up and let out a grateful sigh of relief before turning his gaze back into the scenery of the night. "Thank you, Suzume. I trust that you'll keep that promise, at least until the day the Master decides to brief you all on what's actually going on."

His last sentence made it sound like she was shouldering a huge responsibility to maintain his trust, and it made her feel uneasy. Eventhough what Kiyoshi revealed gave her some idea of what exactly was going on, there were still many things that didn't quite make sense yet, and she would have loved to discuss this with the other Ninjas. But after making her promise, she decided it was dishonorable for her to do so. Her newfound respect for Kiyoshi meant that she didn't want to do anything to disappoint him.

As the two resumed gazing at the view outside, Suzume reflected on the last few minutes of her interaction with him. She never expected her misadventure would lead to her getting to know him a little better. Eventhough he never actually revealed anything more about himself, she could already discern the kind of person he was; solemn, quick-thinking, can be humorous at times, but beyond and above all that; he's very approachable and friendly, and Suzume was glad that they had the chance to properly interact with each other. In fact, and despite not showing it, she actually felt comfortable talking and being with him. Perhaps a little too comfortable...

Suzume suddenly realized her breathing and the beating of her heart had picked up pace the more she started thinking about the teenager standing next to her. The same thing that happened earlier when she was observing him during his training...

 _Okay, this is getting weird..._

"Hey, uh... I think I have to go back to bed. It's getting late for me," she briefly said, giving him an apologizing look while trying her best not to make her cheeks blush in red.

Kiyoshi nodded. "Sure. And uh... thanks. For talking to me and joining me outside. I really appreciate making your acquaintance, Suzume..."

Eventhough she was trying to get away from him, young Suzume couldn't stop herself from flashing him her sweetest smile. "Sure, it's my pleasure, Kiyoshi," she replied softly, before realizing her cheeks had indeed turned crimson. She immediately turned and went her way through the ricepaper door, shutting it before heading back to her tatami mat.

 _Tonight had certainly been a different night..._

Kiyoshi's gaze remained at the shut ricepaper door before he chuckled to himself and then fixed his attention once again to the Heavens, admiring the silvery glow of the full Moon and enjoying the cool breeze that danced about in the night.

 **End of Part 1**

 **A/N: And so we have the first part of the story. Hopefully it's worth a review or two, I would really appreciate the feedback! To anyone who's read my story, thank you so much for your time! Again, feel free to comment on anything that you have about this chapter, reviews will always get me motivated to write more :D See you all in the next chapter!**


	3. Finding Trouble

**Chapter 2: Finding Trouble**

The next two days passed by with the same routine since Kiyoshi's arrival; the Mini Ninjas would wake up to see their breakfast of steamed rice already prepared in advance by their Master and a quick look outside the balcony would reveal that he's outside at the same spot in the clearing, monitoring Kiyoshi's progress in mastering several new Ninjutsu moves. As usual, the Mini Ninjas were given the freedom to do whatever they wished for the rest of the day, as long as they do not cause any trouble or behaved erratically. This freedom, however, was seen more as a curse than a blessing by some of the Mini Ninjas.

"Ugh! I can't take this anymore!" Hiro groaned while he sat around on the grass with Futo and Suzume on the third morning after breakfast. "It's been weeks since we've had any action to do! I can't stand any more of this!"

Futo slowly nodded in agreement with him. "Me too. I'm getting bored of practicing moves that we've already mastered and lazing the rest of the day away. It's just too bad the Master is too busy with Kiyoshi to teach us new moves or share with us some of his Wisdom."

The three then took a glance several feet behind them where Kiyoshi was busy practicing his 67th move; the flying cross punch.

"Ah! Just forget about Kiyoshi!" Hiro grumbled turning his attention away from the teenager in question. "Having Kiyoshi around is one thing, but not having any trouble to sort out is another! I'm starting to wish that Shoko and the Samurais would cause havoc somewhere for us to deal with, just to kill off the boredom..."

"Hey! You'd better be careful with what you wish for, Hiro!" Futo reprimanded him with a disapproving frown, which was only met with rolling of eyes from Hiro.

Suzume, however, couldn't forget about Kiyoshi. Her mind was still replaying the brief conversation they had two nights ago as her gaze remained fixed on him. Though he had shown her that he was quite the approachable person, he started behaving indifferently again like how he had since the day he arrived, avoiding the Mini Ninjas and refusing to even make small talk with either of them, including Suzume. Then again, he already told her that he didn't want the Master to know that they had that conversation, which was against his very strict instructions to Kiyoshi to avoid interaction with any of the Mini Ninjas.

Till today, Suzume was still puzzled why the Master gave that particular order to him. She couldn't help but feel sorry for Kiyoshi, who was treated like an outcast by the others as a result of complying with the Master's wishes, but she was certain that the Master would have a good explanation for issuing such an order. Kiyoshi himself had said that the Master would explain to the Ninjas 'about everything' when the time was right, and Suzume certainly hoped that that time would be soon.

"Hey, Suzume! Me and Futo are going to hang out in the village! Wanna join us?"

Her train of thoughts were interrupted when Hiro's voice rang out and she realized that he and Futo had already gotten up and started walking towards the direction of the village. "Yeah, sure guys! Wait up!" she called out, leaping onto her feet and immediately catching up to them.

As they walked amongst the shrubs and greenery of the bamboo forest, Hiro asked, "Hey, Suzu, why were you staring at Kiyoshi just now? We almost thought of leaving you behind..."

"Oh... well, I wasn't really staring at him, I was just... having a lot of questions in my mind when you two mentioned about him," Suzume tried to reply in a casual manner, hoping that the boys didn't suspect anything.

"Yeah, same goes for all of us," Hiro cooly responded, seemingly unaware of anything, much to Suzume's relief. "I'm just wondering why the Master is also keeping us in the dark about him. What do you think?"

"How should I know? Your guess is as good as mine!" Suzume replied with a slightly raised voice to indicate that she didn't want the conversation to drag on. Hiro apparently understood this and the rest of their short journey went on in silence.

Once arrived at the village, the trio went over to one of the wooden houses where they met Aika and her little brother, both of whom were children who were very close friends with the Mini Ninjas. Aika in particular, was very much attached to Hiro, and he couldn't stop himself from blushing every few minutes when Aika would randomly flash a smile, hug and even give a peck on his cheek during the games that they played.

Just before it reached midday, Aika's parents called for her and her brother to help them with the house chores, cutting short their playtime. The Ninjas had no choice but to say good-bye and with no other ideas in mind to pass the time, they soon found themselves sitting at the same spot on the grass again back at their Camp, with the same bored expressions plastered on their faces. The Sun scorched directly above the forest canopy and Kiyoshi and the Master were still in the distance, the former still relentlessly practicing the flying cross punch despite the afternoon heat.

As Hiro sat with one hand supporting his sulking face, a sudden, random thought crept into his mind. "Do you guys think that something big's actually going to happen... only we're not realizing it?"

His two friends looked at him. "What do you mean?" Asked Futo.

"I mean... think about it. How many days of peace would we usually have until Shoko and the Samurais come up with some stupid scheme to create havoc on our Island? Hardly more than a couple of days! And what more weeks! And then, Kiyoshi turns up in our Camp out of the blue, and the Master has suddenly completely forgotten about us and focusing his attention on training Kiyoshi! I really think that there's a connection somewhere between these two events, there has to be!"

Futo began rubbing his chin in thought. "Hmm... actually, you do have a point there, Hiro. I'd never thought having so many days of peace would be a bad thing, but since you put it that way..."

Suzume shifted uneasily. Her mind brought her back to two nights ago when Kiyoshi had told her bluntly that his sudden presence was indeed connected to Shoko and the Samurais' absence and the seemingly never-ending peace the dwellers on the Island had enjoyed the last two weeks. The last thing she expected was Hiro somehow seeing the connection without being told by anyone, given his immaturity. Still, she decided to keep quiet about it and not mention anything.

Hiro then got up and continued, "You know what? Since the Master is not willing to tell us anything, I suggest we scout around the Island and find out what Shoko and her Samurais are up to by ourselves!" He suggested, his face burning with determination.

His two friends, however, remained skeptical. "Come on, Hiro. Why are you looking for trouble when there isn't trouble to begin with?" Suzume countered him with a serious expression.

"Yeah... things always seem to go ugly whenever you decide to go looking for Shoko when they're not doing anything evil or bothering the villagers," Futo added, agreeing with Suzume. "Remember the time you dared yourself to sneak into Ashida's fortress out of boredom just to steal a flag from his roof and we all had to rescue you when you got caught?"

"Okay, fine... maybe that flag incident was entirely my fault," Hiro let out a sheepish laugh while rubbing the back of his head. "But this is different! How sure are we that there is no trouble? What if there's actually huge trouble looming ahead and we don't even know it? How are we gonna prepare ourselves when that trouble lands right at our doorstep?"

Eventhough Suzume and Futo saw the point that he was making, they still weren't convinced with carrying out with his plan as they remained seated on the grass with the same doubtful expressions on their faces. Hiro let out a defeated sigh as he sat down again. Still not giving up, however, he offered one last suggestion; "Okay... if you guys don't want to join me, that's okay. But I still think that Lord Ashida and the Samurais are planning to do something. So, how about I go and scout around the Island myself?"

"How are you gonna do that all by yourself, Hiro?" Futo asked.

"Oh. Um..." Hiro looked around with unsurety, evident that he hadn't quite thought his plan through yet. As he looked at his surroundings, he spotted a black crow perched on top of a bamboo branch just a few feet away from them in the forest. "Hey, I have an idea!" He exclaimed, as he excitedly ran towards the avian while his friends immediately got up and chased after him. The trio stopped below the bamboo tree where the crow was perched. It looked down momentarily at the three children before mindlessly looking elsewhere with disinterest.

"All I have to do is use Kuji Magic to merge with the crow then fly around the Island to see what's what!" He proudly grinned while pointing at the black-feathered bird, which seemed to be unbothered by the children's presence.

For once, his two friends seemed to be convinced with his idea. "Okay, fine. But please remember to be careful when you do that. You've had problems in the past merging and un-merging with animals other than your pet, Fox," Suzume gently reminded him while placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Suzu," Hiro reassured her. "I'll only have problems when I try to merge with animals bigger than Fox. I don't think I'll have any problems while merging with that crow."

He then walked closer to the bird, training his sights on it. He shut his eyes closed but his focus remained on the bird as he started making some hand gestures while chanting a Kuji spell in a low voice. Seconds later, his human form shifted into a ball of light before it zapped straight towards the startled crow. The crow let out a panicked squawk for a brief moment before remaining completely still. It then gazed towards the two remaining children before it glided towards them and landing on Suzume's right shoulder.

Suzume grinned as the bird steadily perched itself on her shoulder and she could see that its eyes had Hiro's hazel irises instead of black ones found on any other crow. "Alright, Hiro the Crow," She giggled before putting on a more serious tone, "Now that you've taken over the crow's body, you can go ahead and fly around to scout the Island as you planned. But please, if you do see Shoko and the Samurais somewhere, remember their location and then quickly fly back to us. Whatever you do, please don't try to get close and spy on them! If you are too close and end up getting caught, we won't even know where you are to rescue you! Can you promise me that?"

The crow then raised its right wing in the air while resting its left wing on its breast, as if it were saying 'cross my heart and hope to die' before letting out a squawk and taking off into the air. "Good luck, Hiro!" Both Suzume and Futo cheered for him as his new avian form climbed higher into the skies before it disappeared from their sights.

As he glided along in the Heavens, Hiro pondered where he should start looking for Shoko first. Ashida had illegally erected several fortresses in different corners of the huge Island, and he would randomly move about from one fortress to another. Hiro decided he had no choice but to search all nine fortresses to find out what the warlord and his granddaughter Shoko were up to. It would be relatively easy to know when Ashida was in one of the fortresses; the fortress that he occupied would have far more Samurai soldiers guarding it than those that were unoccupied, which would be guarded by at most a platoon of six Samurai soldiers.

Identifying the fortress that Ashida was occupying in was the easy part, the more challenging aspect of his mission was flying from one fortress to another. As he had merged with such a small bird like the crow, Hiro had to use up a lot of energy to spontaneously flap his wings in order to fly faster when searching the fortresses. Crows normally fly at a certain altitude and at a certain leisurely pace, but given the time constraint and the vast area of land that he had to cover, there wasn't much choice for Hiro but to continuously make use of his energy during the search.

After two hours, he had flown and searched eight of the nine fortresses, and all of them showed the same telltale signs that Ashida wasn't in any of them. That only left the Winter Fortress, which was located at the top of a snow-ridge mountain in the most Northern part of the Island. Hiro really wished that he had merged with a much bigger bird, because flying around there meant having to battle the turbulent winds that constantly blew about within the mountains. Hiro prayed that his efforts would pay off as he flew closer to the mountains.

Soon enough, he found himself struggling to overcome the massive gusts of winds surrounding the mountain that seemed to be determined to blow him off-course away from the fortress. And yet, it only made Hiro even more determined to battle the winds and scout around the towering structure. However, once he was high enough to hover above the fortress, he was both shocked and dismayed to see that there were only four Samurai soldiers patrolling in the fortress' courtyard. Hiro was sure that if Ashida was truly inside, the courtyard would be filled with his entire Samurai army to protect him, given how paranoid he had become after being thwarted and outsmarted by the Mini Ninjas hundreds of times.

Still in a state of disbelief, Hiro decided to check out the building itself just to be sure. He flew towards the windows and saw that there wasn't a single light source nor a single sound being emitted from within the building, further confirming that indeed there wasn't anyone inside. With no other reason to linger around, Hiro in his crow form decided it was high time to leave, the strong winds more than happy to aid him in his departure by blowing him away from the area.

As he flew towards the direction back to the bamboo forests, he couldn't help but ponder why Ashida wasn't in any of his fortresses. Hiro contemplated that either the evil warlord had left the Island for some reason, or... maybe it was that he himself had overlooked one of the fortresses and Ashida was actually inside one of them. If that was the case, then Hiro decided he would not go back and try to go through the entire hunting process all over again just yet. That would have to wait once he unmerged with the crow, get a well-deserved rest and maybe wait until he comes across a larger bird that he could merge with to do just that.

It was already late in the afternoon and Hiro couldn't wait to land in the bamboo forests to take shelter from the scorching Sun that burned overhead. But as he started approaching the small village that was situated just before the entrance of the bamboo forest, he noticed something. The village was located between the bamboo forests and a tall, rocky hill that towered over the cluster of wooden houses. The villagers usually don't encroach onto this Hill due to its height and its rocky surface meant that any disturbance could potentially cause a deadly rockslide that would crush their entire village.

Sensing something amiss, Hiro decided to fly in a little closer to determine what was going on. As he gradually descended, he could almost immediately discern the figures that were moving about on the top of the Hill; they were the Samurai soldiers! Hiro almost let out a squawk of disbelief as he hovered several feet above the area. He couldn't properly see what the soldiers were up to from where he was, but he could certainly make out the noises of random shouts of instructions from the bigger Samurai Generals to their smaller subordinates and the sounds of several pickaxes breaking through the ground and the surrounding rocks.

Hiro decided he needed to get closer to really find out what the Samurais were doing, which meant going against the promise he made earlier to Suzume.

Sorry, Suzu, but this can't be avoided, Hiro thought in his mind as he started scouting for a place to hide himself and spy on the Samurais. Being on top of the rocky hill meant that there weren't any trees around for him to perch on while being hidden by branches and leaves, but Hiro spotted two large boulders that stood side by side at the very edge of the Hill that was quite a distance away from the Samurai soldiers, which he figured would be safe enough to use as cover. He immediately trained his sights and swooped down silently before landing right behind the boulders without being seen. There was a small gap between the boulders where Hiro could easily stick his beak out and look around ahead of him.

That was when he could clearly see what the Samurais were doing. He saw a group of them using pickaxes to strike the ground and break some boulders to form smaller clusters of rocks while being manned by three Samurai Generals who were booming out instructions to the smaller soldiers. A slight turn of his beak to the right and Hiro could see of what looked like the bottom part of an incomplete structure. The structure was being built by another team of Samurai soldiers, who were using rocks, which Hiro guessed were obtained from pickaxing soldiers, as well as bamboo. The structure erected so far stood only about six feet from the ground, but Hiro deduced the final design of the structure would stand about twenty times of that.

Just then, he heard a familiar raucous voice somewhere booming his dissatisfaction. "It's already been two weeks, Shoko, and the first floor of the fortress is still not completed!"

The moment he heard the voice, Hiro started looking around to see the person it belonged to. His view was very much limited between the gap, so he decided to leave the cover of the boulders and decided to perch on top of the left boulder instead. Despite now being in plain sight, Hiro was sure that the Samurais wouldn't see anything amiss if they spotted him, in his crow form, perching on the boulder. As he scanned the area, he finally saw something that he overlooked several feet away from the working Samurais. It was Ashida, the evil Warlord, sitting inside his luxurious Japanese palanquin; a hand-carried chariot that was beared by four exhausted Samurai soldiers who were showing signs of strain from having to carry the weight of the palanquin with their Master in it.

"What have you got to say for this, Shoko?!" Ashida barked through the palanquin's window to a girl who was about a year older than Hiro. Hiro immediately recognized her as Shoko, Ashida's spoilt granddaughter whom always created havoc around the Island and whom the Mini Ninjas regularly engaged and successfully defeated her and her Samurai minions countless of times whenever she was up to no good. Presently, she appeared to be very sorry for herself for having to face her grandfather's wrath.

"I-I'm really sorry grandfather," she began apologetically before angrily pointing an accusing finger towards the direction of the working Samurai soldiers and Generals to her right. "But those Samurai slowpokes just wouldn't speed up! I try to to get them to..."

"I don't care what you tried to do!" Ashida cut her off before she could finish her poorly thought-out excuse. "I only care about seeing the fortress being built in two weeks time! If you can't even carry out this simple task, then don't ever think for a moment that just because you're my granddaughter, I won't use Kuji magic on you to turn you into a wooden statue! You're not irreplaceable, Shoko. Don't forget that your potential replacement has already arrived on this Island and training hard to become a full-pledged Samurai. So if you still want a future, then don't fail me with this simple task!"

Shoko once again put on a regretful face and humbly said with an apologetic bow, "Yes, grandfather. I promise I won't fail you this time."

Ashida growled and looked at her as if he doubted her words, but nonetheless, he made a hand gesture to his minions and briskly ordered, "Guards! Bring me back to the Eastern Fortress!"

The Samurai bearers immediately turned the palanquin around and started going off downhill away from the building site, along with an army of about twenty Samurai soldiers who escorted him.

Once they disappeared from sight, Shoko turned her attention to the Samurai builders and Generals. "All right, listen up, ALL OF YOU!" She yelled out, causing the soldiers to immediately halt what they were doing and turned their undivided attention to her.

"We started working on this fortress two weeks ago, and we still haven't even begun building the first floor. WHY ARE YOU ALL SLACKING?! Get back to work! ALL OF YOU! I wanna see that we build past the third floor by sunrise tomorrow morning! GO!"

The Samurais reacted by frantically resuming their work at a clumsier pace, bumping into each other and accidentally landing their pickaxes on one another's foot. The Generals tried to control and direct their subordinates, but they were moving too fast or were just too frantic to be listening to orders.

Shoko watched the chaotic scene unfold before her, and ended up slapping her forehead hard with an angered growl while clenching her fist. "USELESS, USELESS, USELESS!" She exploded in anger with gritted teeth.

Hiro naturally couldn't help feeling amused by what he saw in front of him. If he were in his human form, he would have burst out laughing on the spot and his cover would have definitely been blown. Still, he decided not to be distracted and remained focused as he eyed the Samurais. There wasn't really much to spy on as every Samurai that he was keeping track of were either running about aimlessly or trying to carry out their work at twice the speed and ending up damaging their equipment. Some Samurai soldiers who were working on the structure tried to hasten the speed of hammering the bamboo walls and foundation in place but ended up either snapping the bamboo poles, accidentally hitting one another with their hammers or causing more damage to the structure itself.

Then, in the midst of the chaos, Hiro's sharp eye unexpectedly caught sight of a potential disaster waiting to happen. He spotted a single Samurai minion who was running while looking behind his back and not at all realizing that he was running towards the edge of the hill. Hiro wouldn't care much about the Samurai's carelessness had he not spotted something else that was also at the very edge of the hill; a single boulder that was twice the size of the one that he was currently perched on and one that was overlooking the village down below.

The Samurai soldier wasn't even aware of anything until he crashed smack-first into the boulder and sending him bouncing back to the ground with a groan. Despite him being smaller, the impact of it was enough to send the boulder teetering over the edge before it started rolling downhill and straight towards the village.

Hiro let out a distressed squawk before taking off into the air. He felt helpless as he watched the massive boulder gain momentum as it rolled down the steep hill and moving faster and faster as it reached the bottom. But before it could even reach anywhere near the base of the Hill, a single bump caused by a jagged-edged rock that stuck out from the ground along the way, suddenly caused the boulder to ricochet towards the air instead. Hiro narrowly avoided being hit by the spinning rock, but he felt even more helpless as he watched it turn into a deadly missile on the loose as gravity started pulling it towards the ground again at break-neck speed.

Hiro shut his eyes and frantically prayed that whichever house that the boulder decided to land on didn't have anyone inside it. Then, he heard it; a loud _THUD!_ followed by several splatters of water. Hiro opened an eye and immediately saw where the boulder had landed. He flew towards the location and let out a squawk of relief when he found out that the boulder had landed in the middle of a muddied rice field, the massive impact forming a large crater around it and sending mud splashing onto the roofs and streets of the surrounding area. The rice farmer and his neighbours would probably be shocked and possibly even angered by this incident, but at least they were unharmed.

 _That's it. The Samurais have gone too far!_ Hiro thought with rage as he started flying to the direction of the bamboo forests. _I have to get Suzume and Futo!_

 **End of Part 2**

 **A/n: To anyone reading this story, do leave a kind review or a comment of your thoughts on this chapter as it will certainly be a motivating factor for me to carry on writing :) Thanks and hope to see you in the next chapter!**


	4. Blowback

**Chapter 3: Blowback**

 **A/n: Please be warned that there are some violent fighting scenes towards the end of this chapter.**

The shadows of the bamboo forests started pointing eastwards as evening arrived. Futo and Suzume had been waiting anxiously for their friend to return as they lingered under the shade of several overgrown bamboo trees. "Hmm... it's almost an hour and a half since Hiro left," Futo lamented with worry. "Shouldn't he be back here already?"

Suzume was just as worried as him but decided to sound optimistic so as to not worry Futo too much. "Well, he did decide to merge with a crow to scout the entire Island, that would probably take him up to three or four hours to do so." She paused to place a comforting hand on his arm. "I'm sure he'll be fine. He'll be back before we know it."

Futo seemed to be assured by this and eventually relaxed himself, though Suzume was now the one who started becoming even more anxious. Hiro had promised her that he wouldn't get anywhere near if he spotted Ashida or the Samurais, but something in her guts kept on telling her that he had probably long broken that promise, which didn't help her at all to soothe her anxiety.

She looked up at the sky that was slowly starting to turn a bright golden hue as the evening wore on, hoping to see any sign of Hiro in his crow form. All of a sudden, they both heard a sudden crash of tree branches followed by a string of panicked cawing from some sort of a bird several feet away from them. "What the-" Futo exclaimed before he and Suzume made no haste to quickly run towards the direction of the commotion.

After going deeper into the woods, they arrived at the base of a particular tree with several of its branches broken and scattered on the ground. They were quite certain that this was the exact spot of the ruckus that they just heard. "Hiro?" Suzume called out, convinced that it was none other than her friend who probably had a hard landing. Yet, they couldn't seem to find any traces of Hiro or the crow he merged with amongst the branches or the area around the tree when they started looking for him. Which was odd...

"Whoah!" Suzume suddenly exclaimed when out of nowhere, a familiar-looking crow suddenly burst through the bush behind them with a frantic caw before lurching itself towards Suzume and suddenly clenching onto her shoulder with its feet. For a wild moment, Suzume thought she was being attacked by a crow that had gone mad, but before she could make any attempts to shoo it off, a beam of light shot out from the crow and landing right in front both Futo and Suzume to reveal Hiro in his normal human form.

With Hiro unmerged with the crow, the avian let out a confused squawk before taking off from Suzume's shoulder and headed straight towards the nearest tree branch. Hiro, meanwhile, was completely exhausted as he collapsed to the ground and started panting heavily as if he had just completed a 100-mile marathon.

"Hiro! Are you okay?!" Futo exclaimed with panic as he and Suzume rushed towards their friend's side.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm okay," Hiro tiredly replied in between his wheezes, though his two comrades were certainly unconvinced by his response.

"Hiro, what happened? Were you chased by Samurais?" Suzume asked with concern, while gently placing her hand beneath his head to support it.

"No... actually, its a lot worse than that..." Hiro panted, causing his two friends to exchange confused glances and wonder what could be worse than being chased by an entire army of Samurais.

To their surprise, Hiro finally caught his breath and decided to pick himself up and brush off the last bit of dirt from his kimono. "Guys, I wish I could hang around and enjoy being pampered by your concerns, but we really have to make a move!" He said with a sense of utmost urgency that it only made his friends even more confused and worried about what was actually going on.

Before either of them could get a chance to question him, Hiro suddenly started darting towards the opposite side of the forest in the direction of the Village. Despite being completely flabbergasted by their comrade's actions, Futo and Suzume realized they had no choice but to quickly sprint after him.

"Hiro! Hey, Hiro, wait up!" Futo yelled, trying to make full use of his stamina to keep up with his friends.

"Hiro! Can you AT LEAST tell us what is going on and where are you leading us?!" Suzume growled angrily having finally lost her patience as she struggled to close the distance between herself and Hiro.

"Yeah, yeah, I will! I'll explain to you once we get there!" Hiro yelled back in response without looking behind. "But for now, you just have to trust me, okay?"

Suzume let out an annoyed growl as a response but nothing else was said any further as she and Futo continued following after Hiro's lead.

Meanwhile, several feet behind them, a single, dark figure hid in the shadows of a tree as it lingered around the area where Hiro had crash-landed earlier on, quietly observing the vanishing figures of the three children running in the distance towards the Village.

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

After sprinting through the forest, the trio made their way across the Village and stopped at the last villager's house, a few hundred feet away from the base of the towering Hill. Hiro had briefed the other two about everything he saw and heard about the Samurais' plan during their short journey there, which, as he expected, came as shocking news to them.

"I can't believe Ashida had been building his fortress right here under our very noses for the last two weeks... and we didn't know about it all this while!" Suzume commented in a hushed voice as she and the others crouched behind a wooden fence and trained their gazes at the Hill's peak.

"I don't think even the Villagers knew about it as well," Hiro replied to her. "This Hill is just too dangerous to be climbed or scaled, so nobody would expect anyone like Ashida to be building something right at the very peak of it."

"Wait a minute," Futo chimed in. "If doing anything on that Hill is dangerous, then... aren't the Samurais building the fortress... well, sort of putting themselves in danger?"

"Yes, you're right, Futo," Hiro nodded. "I usually wouldn't care if the Samurai or Shoko hurt themselves trying to build their stupid fortress, but the thing is, if they mess up in the process, then their mistake could end up harming the villagers down below instead! Like what happened earlier, see?" He pointed to the direction of the paddy field where a large boulder had landed right in the middle of it as a result of a Samurai soldier's negligence. The children turned their gaze at the paddy field where confused villagers were now surrounding the boulder.

"My goodness, it must have been sheer luck that that boulder landed in the paddy field and not on someone's house!" Suzume exclaimed, shuddering at the thought of a boulder that size crushing a villager's wooden house with its occupants still inside.

"Exactly, Suzume! That's why I said this is an emergency; we have to stop them from carrying on with their building or their next mistake would cost a villager's life!" Hiro said before getting away from the cover of the fence and hurriedly making his way to the base of the Hill with Futo and Suzume immediately following suit.

Just as he was about to start his ascent up the hill, Suzume suddenly held him back by holding on to his sleeve, much to his unexpected surprise. "Now hold on, Hiro. I thought your days of simply rushing into things are over," She reprimanded him with a stern look. "Do you have a plan on how to stop them or are you simply going to jump in and try to fight everyone you see and have us captured within seconds?"

"Oh, right. Heh," Hiro sheepishly scratched the back of his head before turning his gaze to the top of the hill. "Okay, I got it!" He snapped his fingers just mere seconds later. "Here's the thing: when Ashida left this Hill, quite a number of Samurai soldiers who were working on the Fortress left with him, so there will be fewer Samurais for us to take care of here. Although, I have to admit that we would still be outnumbered."

"So do we run back to the Ninja Craft and get the others to help?" Futo asked, referring to the other Mini Ninjas.

"Nah, I don't think we need their help," Hiro assured him. "All we need to do is make use of our stealth skills!" He then huddled the two closer. "When I was scouting the building site, I noticed there were more Samurais working on the structure than there were who were busy pickaxing boulders. Coincidentally, those pickaxing Samurais are also being closely monitored by Shoko. So, what I suggest is that we use our stealth skills and attack the Samurais working on the structure as quietly as possible first. Then, we'll handle the others and Shoko. I think there are only three or four soldiers who are pickaxing the boulders, so that shouldn't be a problem for us."

He then stood up and looked at his two friends. "So, do we agree on my plan?"

Suzume and Futo grinned at him with brimming confidence as they nodded.

"Alright! So let's get climbing!" Hiro declared as he began his ascent up the Hill, followed by Suzume and then Futo.

As they made their way to the peak, Suzume whispered to him, "Good plan, Hiro," She complimented him with a grin. "Now doesn't life feel a little bit easier when you plan things before jumping into action?"

Hiro scoffed and rolled his eyes at her teasing, but knew deep down that she had a point. The hike up the Hill would have been easier if it weren't covered with rocks and stones that jutted out from the loose soil of the Hill. Hiro had to put double the concentration on his footing to make sure he didn't step on a stone and send it spiraling towards his friends who were trudging behind him.

After twenty minutes of ascending, they finally reached the edge of the peak right next to where several Samurai soldiers were busy working on building the first floor of the wide structure. The Trio took cover by laying flat on their stomachs and peeking the heads just over the curved edge of the Hill. From there, they silently observed the soldiers; they managed to count nine of them and one Samurai General all scattered around within the structure that was currently supported by sturdy beams with half-completed walls made from bits of broken stones and boulders, and surrounded by bamboo scaffolding to make it easier for the soldiers to move from the ground floor to the first.

Just beyond them several feet away from the building site was Shoko, sitting on a wooden stool with her back conveniently facing the structure (and the Ninjas) as she 'supervised' three Samurais who were pickaxing on boulders and rocks to be made into the walls of the structure.

"Hit harder, you nincompoops! I can't have my tea break until all these boulders are in smaller pieces! WORK FASTER!" She barked at the tired soldiers, whose arms and legs were starting to quiver from being overworked but were forced to carry on at a faster rate. Hiro, Suzume and Futo looked at each other with smug grins on their faces before going into action.

As the unsuspecting soldiers were carrying on with their work on the structure, the trio split up and took various positions to prepare for their attack. Suzume quietly climbed up a supporting beam that was partially blocked by the bamboo scaffolding that surrounded the structure which she used as cover. Clenching on to the beam, she waited for two Samurai soldiers who were coming from two separate ends and were about to meet right in front of the supporting beam. The moment they were close enough, the female ninja instantly leaped onto the ground and knocked both soldiers into each other with her bare hands before either of them had a chance to react. The result was that the soldiers' Kuji spots that were on their helmets came into contact with one another, hence breaking Ashida's spell and turning the soldiers back into wild rabbits, which were their original forms. Satisfied with her work, Suzume grinned and quietly moved away from the scene as the two rabbits started scampering back to their habitat.

Meanwhile, Hiro decided to crawl inside a nearby bush and somehow managed to lift the entire vegetation off from its roots, which he then used as a makeshift camouflage as he slowly moved towards the building site. A nearby Samurai soldier somehow spotted the bush and was completely bewildered when he saw it inching closer and closer to the uncompleted fortress. The bush suddenly stopped dead in its tracks and settled onto the ground and remained still as if it were a normal bush just minding its own business. Stupefied by what he was seeing, the soldier decided to go to the bush and find out what was going on.

Just as he was a few inches away from the vegetation, Hiro, who noticed the soldier approa unleashed a powerful kick to the soldier's leg, causing him to clumsily tumble and fall right next to the bush. A single tap to the soldier's Kuji Spot on his helmet turned him back into a rabbit, which then scampered away from the scene. Though he was satisfied to see the rabbit free from Ashida's spell, Hiro knew his job wasn't over yet as he shifted his gaze to the three other soldiers working on the base of the fortress. Hiro grinned to himself as he lifted the bush once again and moved closer and closer to his unsuspecting targets...

Not far behind, Futo hid himself behind a large boulder after realizing there wasn't anything else around that was big enough to provide him some cover. He peeked over the boulder to see that Hiro had already taken care of the three Samurai soldiers on the base of the fortress, leaving only three more soldiers working on the first floor of the structure and the Samurai General who was directing them. There was no way Hiro would be able to take down all of them by himself and his bush camouflage and would no longer be useful to him (it wouldn't make sense for a bush to suddenly appear on the first floor of the unfinished structure), so it was now up to him to do something. Futo looked unsure as he had no idea how to get close enough to them on the first floor without being seen. He sunk lower behind the boulder and started racking his brain for an idea. He looked around him and noticed the various stones and pebbles that scattered on the ground around him. He grinned to himself as he picked up a rather large pebble with his left hand and collected four other pebbles with his other hand...

The remaining Samurai soldiers on the first floor were obediently nailing floorboards onto the barren floor with exasperated looks as their impatient General grunted orders in Japanese with its deep voice, pushing them to pick up the pace. Just then, a loud _ca-thwang_! could be heard as a large pebble hit one of the bamboo poles before ricochetting towards the Samurai General, hitting him at the back of his iron helmet. The alerted General and the other soldiers immediately looked up to the direction where the pebble hit the bamboo pole, only to see four more pebbles in mid-air hurling towards each and every one of them.

 **xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Having decided that standing around and waiting for the Samurai soldiers to finish pickaxing the large boulders could take up several hours, Shoko sat herself on a stool that her grandfather left behind for her earlier. She knew it was unfair that she had the pleasure of being able to sit down while her soldiers toiled away under the Sun and showing symptoms of complete exhaustion. But they were just that: her soldiers under her command. Of course it shouldn't be fair to them. "Hurry up, work faster, you lazy fools!" She barked, much to the annoyance of her minions. "You have only an hour left to break these last eight boulders! STOP SLACKING!"

She relaxed back onto her stool, feeling satisfied with herself. As she observed the three Samurai soldiers pickaxing at a slightly faster pace, a wild bunny scampered past her. She ignored the creature at first, but then several more wild rabbits began scuttling past her towards the other side of the Hill.

"What...?" She reacted in bewilderment at the sight of the scampering critters and immediately turned around. Her teeth started seething with rage when she saw the three Mini Ninjas standing just a few feet away from her, with smuggish smiles planted on their lips. Just beyond them was the incomplete fortress with not a single soul working on it. Shoko had already deduced what had happened to her Samurai soldiers who were supposed to be building her grandfather's new fortress and it made her blood boil even more.

"Hate to break it to you, Shoko, but you and Ashida didn't get our permission to start building your new fortress up on this Hill," Suzume taunted her as she and her fellow Mini Ninjas posed themselves in defensive stances.

"GRRRR... We don't need permission from you Mini Nitwits to do anything!" She angrily lashed out at them. She then signaled to her three remaining minions, "Guards! Attack them!"

Unfortunately for her, the remaining Samurai soldiers were beyond exhausted from their hard work earlier, making the Mini Ninjas' task much easier. The first Samurai had only enough energy to wearily jog towards the Ninjas in an attempt to carry out Shoko's order, but his energy was completely drained by the time he actually got to them, causing him to collapse on his knees and pant heavily just a mere foot away in front of Futo. Futo took his time to casually kneel down and tap on the soldier's Kuji spot on his helmet, instantly turning it back into its original rabbit form.

The second Samurai saw how his comrade easily succumbed to the Ninjas and decided to put in a little more effort despite being exhausted. With his last ounce of energy, he bravely raised his sword and charged towards them. Despite his determination, however, his tiredness got the better of him as he somehow missed spotting a rather obvious jagged-edged stone sticking out from the ground just as he was less than a few feet away from the Ninjas, causing him to trip over the stone and hitting face-first onto the ground, with the impact causing him to slide the rest of his way until he came to a stop. Feeling dazed, the soldier looked up to see Suzume grinning cheekily at him.

"Uh-oh!" the soldier was able to squeak before Suzume took the opportunity to kneel down and tap his Kuji spot, turning him back into a rabbit like his previous comrade.

By now, Shoko was beyond fuming her head off as she saw how easily the two Samurai soldiers were easily beaten. Clenching her fist, she turned towards her last remaining soldier, "You'd better do better than those two idiots!" She warned him with a menacing growl.

The last soldier was visibly terrified by the fact that it all came down to him to defeat the Ninjas. He took a deep breath and wielded the pickaxe that he had been using to break down boulders from earlier (which his first two comrades hadn't thought of using as a weapon) before charging towards the trio.

Futo and Suzume immediately took up defensive stances as they, for once, saw the pickaxe-wielding Samurai as an actual threat, but Hiro wasn't as concerned as them. He remained confidently calm as he stood his ground while the charging Samurai got closer and closer towards him. He was confident that Samurai's exhaustion would eventually cause him to make a blunder, like the first two Samurais. Eventually, the soldier came to a halt right in front of him. The soldier raised the pickaxe over his own head with every intention to strike Hiro with maximum force.

But, as Hiro predicted, the soldier's tiredness eventually caught up with him, as he didn't have enough energy to support the full weight of the pickaxe when he raised it over his head. The soldier ended up falling backwards and landing his back hard on the ground as soon as he raised the pickaxe. Hiro chuckled to himself as he walked over to the dazed soldier, who could only groan in pain as Hiro loomed over him. Without wasting another second, Hiro decided to put the soldier out of his misery and tapped on his Kuji spot.

"NO, NO, NO!" Shoko bellowed out with exploding rage as the last of her Samurai was turned back into a wild rabbit that scampered away from the scene. "You Mini Ninnies are always being a nuisance! Grrr..."

Suzume grinned at her. "We're sorry, but we just can't help being a nuisance to you and your grandfather, Shoko," She laughed. "You two are always coming up with schemes that disturb the peace on the Island and we have no choice but to become a nuisance and foil your evil plans. Perhaps if you actually stop scheming and causing a ruckus, maybe we don't have to become a nuisance for you guys!"

Hiro decided to join in, "And maybe... if you treat your soldiers with dignity, you might stand a slightly higher chance of coming close to defeating us," He taunted. "But either way, we all know for a fact that you can't, and probably never will be able to defeat the Mini Ninjas!"

Hiro's last remark made Shoko beyond incandescent, and she was more ready than ever to prove how horribly wrong he was. "GRRR... then why don't we find out and see?! HIYAAAAA!"

Moving faster before the three Ninjas could react, Futo, who had remained quiet the whole time and didn't take part in his friends' gloating session earlier, became the unfortunate first target of Shoko's wrath, as she launched herself straight towards him before striking a powerful kick to his lower abdomen and sending him flying backwards with a loud "Oomph...!"

Seeing their friend brought down by her immediately put Hiro and Suzume on guard, as they poised themselves in offensive positions with angry growls on their faces. "Hey! You're going to pay for that!" Suzume cried out, as she brandished her long flute to use as a melee weapon.

Seeing the Ninjas incensed by her sudden attack made Shoko grin with satisfaction, and she was more than happy to do the same with Suzume.

Suzume went first to try and strike Shoko at her solar plexus to incapacitate, but she was immediately able to dodge the blow. Without a single pause, Suzume immediately went for a second, third and fourth attempt to strike her, but Shoko was somehow able to predict where each blow was intended to land and hence was able to twist, swerve and turn her body to avoid being hit by the flute with relative speed and ease.

Before Suzume could make a fifth attempt, Shoko decided it was time for her to once again be on the offensive side and immediately swung her body backwards to perform a backwards kick. With Ninja instincts, Suzume prevented her chin from being struck by Shoko's foot by somersaulting backwards in the opposite direction before landing gracefully back on her feet, her counter-measure ended up putting some considerable distance between herself and Shoko.

Realizing that the Samurai heiress possessed the same martial skills as her, Suzume finally decided to use the one thing that she knew Shoko did not possess; magic. With eyes narrowing on her opponent, Suzume placed the flute's mouthpiece close to her lips with the very intention of playing a magical tune that will conjure up several mystical vines that will shoot out from the ground and coil around Shoko's body in order to restrain her.

However, Shoko immediately realized what was about to happen and quickly lurched herself forward. Before Suzume was even able to draw her breath, she was suddenly struck at her stomach by a powerful kick delivered by Shoko, sending her flying backwards and separated from her flute. "ARGH!" she groaned with agony after landing several feet away, clutching her stomach where she was hit.

Being the only Ninja left standing and seeing his other friends in agony made Hiro fume with rage. With a silent growl, he unsheathed his ninjato bamboo sword and darted straight towards Shoko. His opponent had just savoured a brief victory moment after defeating Suzume, but her peripheral vision had caught sight of the edge of the ninjato sword aimed for her head, and she was able to duck and narrowly avoided being struck in just a matter of inches.

Hiro attempted a few more swings of his sword but Shoko once again was able to correctly predict where each blow was about to land and was able to dodge each and every one of them.

Hiro immediately realized there was no point of continuing with the melee attack, prompting him to hold back and posed himself in a defensive stance. Shoko saw this and instantly posed herself in an offensive stance with a smuggish grin, thinking that this was her chance to defeat her life-long enemy. But unbeknownst to her, Hiro had one last trick up his sleeve.

Unexpectedly, he dropped his ninjato sword in front of him, but before it could touch the ground, Hiro gave it a powerful kick, which sent the melee weapon spinning and hurling towards his target.

Shoko's eyes bulged with surprise, but didn't let the shock immobilize her body. Instead, she narrowed her eyes on the sword and then did a backwards kick just as it was inches from stricking her body. Her kick then changed the sword's trajectory, and it was now spinning upwards into the air before gravity started pulling it towards the ground. Not losing sight of the sword, Shoko extended her right hand and immediately caught the ninjato sword by its hilt before it could hit the ground.

With her enemy's weapon now in her hand, Shoko thought with a triumphant smirk that she was now having the upper hand, and defeating Hiro was just a swing of the sword away. But as she returned her gaze to Hiro, she just had milliseconds to realize that the sword was nothing more than a distraction as Hiro was now in mid-air and his leg extended into a kick.

"Oh n- ARRRGHHHH!"

Shoko screamed in pain as she received the blow to her chest. The impact of Hiro's kick sent her hurling back, and she ended up laying face-down on the dirt soon after. She let out a second groan when she felt a weight being pressed down on her back, and then realized Hiro was pinning her onto the ground, who was soon joined by Futo and Suzume, who had both brushed off their light injuries from earlier.

With her entire body completely restrained, Shoko was only able to look upwards into the grinning faces of the three Ninjas, with Hiro's smirk being the widest. "Well, Shoko. Looks like you've found out for the millionth time that you truly can't defeat the Mini Ninjas!"

Shoko rolled her eyes and let out a muffled, annoyed growl as she was both too exhausted and too restrained to speak a word.

"Alright, Suzume. Work your magic and make sure she doesn't get away," Hiro winked at her. Suzume nodded with a grin and took out her flute, and started to play a magical tune. The ground trembled lightly for a few seconds before vines started sprouting from the dirt around Shoko. The Samurai heiress' eyes widened with panic and astonishment as the vines started wrapping itself around her body like a snake coiling around its prey.

Suzume continued playing the tune on her flute and was half-way done when all of a sudden...

 _ **KABOOM!**_

The sound of a massive explosion rocked the atmosphere before thick, white smoke suddenly engulfed the Ninjas and Shoko. "Wha..." Suzume exclaimed with confusion before finally realizing that they had been hit by a smoke bomb. The smoke screen was so thick, she couldn't even see either Futo or Hiro, who were both beside her earlier.

Then, out of nowhere, a sudden blow landed on her chest and she ended up being thrown backwards and landing hard on her back with a painful groan. Seconds later, she heard her two friends let out cries agony before hearing them collapse next to her almost at the same time. The Ninjas were in utter confusion as they had no idea what had hit them with the thick smoke blinding their visions.

Just as soon as it happened, the smoke screen eventually settled to reveal a sight that the Ninjas couldn't believe they were witnessing; standing over the entangled Shoko, was a teenaged boy with the most menacing expression they had ever seen. He donned a full Samurai suit of metal armour that was blood-red in colour with black pants, accompanied by a matching red Samurai Helmet. He looked almost as tall as Futo and his face was marred by a long, snaking scar that went from his left ear, across his left cheek and touched the edge of his lip. But what struck the Ninjas with genuine fear was the weapon he wielded in his right hand: A long spear with the sharpest edge either of them had ever seen.

He stood over Shoko while resting his left boot on her back. "I arrive on this Island a few minutes ago and already I have to rescue you from this ninnies? Huh, looks like I couldn't have arrived at a much appropriate time..." He muttered mockingly in a deep voice without looking at her, his eyes fixed on the Ninjas the entire time.

Shoko apparently knew this boy but reacted by simply rolling her eyes. The teenager grinned and then put his foot off from her before bracing himself in an offensive stance and aiming his spear at the Mini Ninjas.

The three younger Ninjas didn't have time to ponder who this teenager was, as he had clearly presented himself to be a threat. The trio immediately leapt onto their feet and braced themselves to counter attack. "Alright, you, uh... scar-faced guy! Prepare to be taken down by the awesome skills of the Mini Ninjas!" Hiro taunted him while unsheathing his ninjato sword, with Futo and Suzume drawing their respective weapons.

The teenager simply grinned and briefly muttered to Shoko, "Let me show you how its done..."

With a growl, he then charged straight towards Hiro. With both his hands gripped on his spear, he swung the weapon to slash Hiro across his chest, but the nimble Ninja was able to arch his body backwards just as the pointed end of the spear sliced through the air where his torso was just milliseconds ago. Hiro then straightened his body before leaping into the air and pulling his ninjato sword over his head with every intention to strike the teenager's head with maximum force. Yet, the boy was somehow much quicker than him and was able to use the spear's pointed edge to fling Hiro's ninjato out from his hands before it could strike him. Disarmed in mid-air, Hiro ended up falling clumsily next to the boy's feet with a loud groan.

Sensing that his friend needed urgent help, Futo charged towards the teen while yelling out, "Get away from my friend!"

The bulky Ninja ran towards him while gripping on his large hammer, yet the teenager remained dangerous calm and didn't even flinch a muscle. Just as Futo was close enough, he pulled back his hammer and then swung it forwards to strike his target on the head. But once again, the scar-faced teenager reacted at the last millisecond and did the unexpected; he jabbed his spear forward and stabbed the very centre of the hammer's wooden head, immediately halting its movement.

Futo was completely dumbstruck when he felt his hammer become 'stuck' in mid-air. The teen then took the opportunity to use the spear as a lever and sent the wooden hammer hurling upwards into the air before gravity took over and pulled it towards the ground. Futo was still too stunned as his hammer continued spiraling downwards before it eventually crashed squarely on his own head, knocking him out cold.

The teen grinned at the fainted bulky Ninja laying on the ground and was about to turn back towards Hiro, when all of a sudden, the ground quivered violently before two snaking vines shot out from the dirt next to his feet and started rapidly coiling around his legs. He let out an annoyed growl and looked up to see Suzume playing her flute a couple of feet away from to conjure up those vines.

Before the vines could coil around his torso, he gripped his spear tighter and aimed it downwards before violently slicing the two magical vines into shreds in a matter of seconds. Suzume looked up and could hardly believe her eyes at how quickly the teenager was able to foil her defensive move. She then placed her lips at the mouthpiece again to conjure up another magical tune, but before that could even happen, the boy charged straight towards her and delivered a powerful kick straight into her torso.

"Owww!" Suzume cried out in agony before violently landing on her back, causing her vision to be temporarily blurred.

She blinked a few times and her sight slowly started to recover. However, once she was able to see clearly once again, her body immediately froze with genuine terror. Towering over her still body was the teenager, who stared indifferently into her eyes, while his right hand held his spear with its pointed edge hovering just inches above her throat.

Suzume couldn't shift away from his emotionless eyes even when she heard Hiro screaming for her in the distance.

"SUZUME! NOOOOOO...!"

A single tear rolled down from her orbs as the teenager lifted the spear before thrusting it downwards...

 _ **To be continued...**_

 **Ps: As promised, this chapter contains some hardstyle Ninja fighting action and I hope I didn't disappoint anyone. It took me three months of writing in between work and life in general, so I hope people reading this would at the very least find the chapter entertaining. Not sure how long I'll take to create the next chapter, so do watch this space.**

 **Again, please do read and leave a kind review/comment. Thanks in advance.**


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